


Glimbowweek Fall 2020

by HaroThar



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Horde Glimmer (She-Ra), Illustrations, Tumblr: Glimbow Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26267965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaroThar/pseuds/HaroThar
Summary: Round two whoop whoop!!! Let's give those babes some love!
Relationships: Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 54
Collections: Glimbow Week 2020





	1. Childhood Memories

They lied on their backs in the damp grass of the clearing, seeding heads poking at the undersides of their knees and calves and dew sticking to their shoulder blades and necks. The sky above them was vast, stretching forever and ever with no clouds in sight, just three of the lesser moons radiating a bluish light. 

“Do you think stars were ever real?” Bow asked, grass scratching at the small of his back, which was excitingly bare. 

Glimmer lifted up her hands and created a small ball of glitter, then threw it out in front of them. From this angle, it almost looked like the little glowing specks were far, far away. Far enough they could be like clouds. Like the moons.

“Maybe. Maybe they all died.” She watched the glitter flicker and fade, until they were staring up at the black vastness again.

Bow nodded. “Lotsa stuff died 1,000 years ago,” he said, “But maybe the people who wrote stuff down meant something else when they said ‘stars,’ too. Maybe we just haven’t figured out what they meant yet.”

“Yeah,” Glimmer said, readying another ball, “Maybe.”

“There were supposed to be things called ‘constellations,’” Bow said, and Glimmer thought that he sounded very smart. “Where you could connect the dots and the stars would make shapes in the sky.”

Glimmer flung up another ball of glitter. They watched it as it slowly dispersed again, deeply contemplative in the way only young children can be. 

She sat up suddenly. “We should do that!”

“Do what?” Bow asked, sitting up as well. Ready for adventure, whatever it was.

“Make constellations! We have to be really fast though. Here, I’ll go first,” she said, laying back down and making another ball of glitter, cheeks puffed as she focused. She flung it up and scooched over so her head was right next to Bow’s. “Uhhhh, there!” she shouted with a point, “that one looks like a tree!”

“Oh!” Bow exclaimed, getting it now. “Okay, I see that!”

“Here, I’ll do another one,” she said, flinging up another cloud of glowing pinpricks.

Bow’s eyes darted over it, then he pointed. “I see a horse,” he said, outlining the shape with a finger.

“What, no, that’s way more like a dog,” Glimmer said, recognizing the shape in the sparkles but disagreeing.

Bow squinted, turned his head a little so he was more to the same angle as Glimmer. “Oh, I guess I could see that.” He shrugged. “It’s still a horse though.”

“I’ll just have to find a dog in mine then,” Glimmer said, releasing another ball.

They kept it up until Glimmer was tired and out of magic, then snuck back into the castle together. Bow yawned, big enough his lips stretched, and Glimmer patted her bed (which would one day hang from the ceiling, but for now, she still fell out of).

“Come on, sleepover,” she said, and Bow could only agree.


	2. Injury

Being the daughter of an immortal queen had its perks; Glimmer never got sick like the other kids. Or any of the adults. Or anyone. She didn’t get sick. It was great, she was pretty sure, if only because getting sick looked _awful._

But she could get hurt. Falling from trees, when she was little, hitting herself in the face with her training staff, when she was a little bigger. Getting blasted in the side with a Horde laser, when she was larger still. 

“I’m fine,” she grunted, aware that she sounded less-than-convincing. “It’s no biggie! I’ve taken worse.”

“Glimmer!” Bow whined, not in the mood for joking around.

“I’m fiiiiiiine,” she said, wincing as she attempted to stand and falling back against the boulder they were hiding behind. “Okay. Maybe a little less than fine. But I will be!”

“Yes, you will,” Bow said decisively, carefully but pointedly picking her up. “Because we’re going home, _now.”_

“I can--” but Bow wasn’t listening to her, at the very least he wasn’t listening to her protests.

“She-ra! Glimmer’s hurt! We’ll meet you back at Bright Moon!” Bow called, and Adora waved one glowing hand their direction before launching a tank into another tank. Swift Wind was there in a flash, and Glimmer gasped and grit her teeth when he launched them all into the air.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Bow said, petting at her hair with one hand, the other holding her firmly. Securely. Safely. He would never let her fall. 

“Yeah, and I’ll have another cool scar to add to the collection,” Glimmer said, trying once again to lighten the mood even though her words grit out terse and tight. 

“Right there next to the one you got from slipping in the ravine,” Bow murmured distractedly, lips to her hair.

“No that’s on my other side. Oh, but now I’ll be matchy!” she said brightly, then winced as the effort took a little too much. “Ow.”

Bow chuckled, and it sounded forced, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. “Yeah. Let’s just focus on getting you home and healing first, okay?”

“Glimmer sighed and leaned into her best friend’s warmth. “Yeah,” she said, feeling the safety that radiated from his every pore. “Okay.”


	3. Meeting the Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're a bit late but eh life

The library had been near-silent the first time Glimmer and Adora had visited, most of its lights off, seemingly abandoned. That was not the case now, the sound of lively chatter reaching them before the building even came into view. Bow swallowed.

Glimmer reached out and held his hand.

“It’s just--this’ll be the first time they’ve seen me like this. In real life,” he tacked on, remembering his takeover of Prime’s comm towers. He gestured with his free hand to his exposed navel, his rockin’ abs, and then the rest of his person. He had strong arms, a quiver, running legs in tight pants. “George and Lance were supposed to be the last ones to know, and instead, they’re the _only_ ones that know.”

“So it’s all smooth sailing from here, right?” Glimmer encouraged with a smile, giving his hand a little squeeze. He smiled weakly back.

“Right. If everyone else was supposed to take it easier, that means we’re already done with the hardest part!” Adora agreed, lifting her fists in front of her determined little face.

“Yeah,” Bow said, turning back to the library. A banner with “Ououh Family Reunion” painted in cheerful, sunny blue hung over the main doors, light and conversation spilling out from a crack where the last attendee hadn’t quite shut the door all the way.

Glimmer stared at him thoughtfully. “You’re worried about something else, too,” she stated, not questioned.

Bow’s lips thinned, then he let out a rush of air with a half-hearted chuckle. “I’m anxious about them meeting you, and you meeting them.”

“Worried they won’t like your _giiiiiirlfriend?”_ Adora teased, nudging him with her elbow.

“And you!” Bow said, nudging back. “I want them to like both of you! And I want you both to like them! I love my family but they can be a _lot!”_

“Well I dunno if you’ve noticed this but uh,” Adora gestured up and down her front, then pointed open-palmed at Glimmer.

“So can we,” Glimmer finished for her. “Besides! My Aunt Casta is _a lot_ and I get along fine with her!”

“Your aunt is nice,” Bow protested.

“Yes. And a lot. And I love her, and I’m gonna love your family too.”

Bow took another breath, smiled a little more genuinely, and squeezed her hand. “Alright. Yeah. Let’s just, do this.”

The three approached the library doors, and opened them.

Conversation dipped as everyone’s eyes instinctively darted to the door, towards the movement, but came to a grinding halt when everyone then performed a double take. Bow, Glimmer, and Adora were quite possibly the last to arrive, or near to it; the space was crowded. Bow could feel the bead of sweat trail down the back of his neck.

“Hi guys!” he greeted, waving a little. A few people waved back, murmured “hey”s and “hi”s, but no one actually said anything, seemingly waiting with baited breath. “So, uh, as I’m sure you all saw with the, heh, Prime tower things, I’m a rebel. And a jock.”

“Bow you know we love you no matter what,” a woman, probably near her late twenties or early thirties, said as she clasped Bow’s hand in both of hers. “Is this Glimmer?”

“Uh,” Glimmer said, startled, “Yeah! Hi, I’m Glimm--”

“Nadia,” Bow’s sister said, extending her hand and vigorously shaking Glimmer’s. “Bow’s told us sooooo much about you!” she said with that expression that could only mean one thing, on the face of an older sister.

“Hi Glimmer!”

“So good to meet you in person!”

“Isn’t that the Bright Moon princess?”

“We’ve heard good things!”

“She’s even cuter in real life!”

“Bow wasn’t exaggerating about her eyes literally shining, huh?”

“It’s so nice to meet you! We almost didn’t think you were real!”

The family converged on her, Bow shuffled awkwardly to the side as his many siblings rushed to say hello. Nadia slung an arm around Bow’s shoulders, and brought Adora in with the other.

“And who’s this?”

“Adora,” Bow said, “She’s She-ra.”

“Hi.”

“Hi Adora! I’m Nadia, it’s nice to meet you too! Welcome to the Ououh family.”

Bow smiled, and ducked out from under his sister’s arm to force his way through the mass of bodies around his girlfriend. Fortunately, he was stronger than his various historian/scientist siblings, and caught Glimmer’s hand with his own. She caught his gaze, grinned wide, and pulled him all the way in, her arm around his waist and tilting her mouth up to his ear.

“And you were worried,” she teased quietly, then pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“AWWWWWW,” twelve whole people crooned.


	4. Jealousy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> less of a positive one this time whoops

She stood, four feet tall, with bandaids on her knees and her hair half-pulled from its messy ponytail. She’d talked of cutting it all off, and part of him knew that she would, that she would change it with her whims and never second-guess herself. She’d gotten the scrapes from climbing a tree she’d been told not to.

She stood, four feet tall, and shouted. She wasn’t afraid to be loud. To yell. To scream and holler and _make_ herself heard. She would complain as much as she wanted, lament injustice as much as she needed, she would speak her mind, and if you had a problem with it, that wasn’t _her_ problem.

He admired her. Her strength. Her verve. Her loud, carrying voice.

He wished, with a strange ugliness, that once, just once, he could be like her. Could tell someone to shut up without immediately apologizing, to say “I don’t want that” and refuse outright, to say “it’s not fair!” without doubting himself. He cherished her spirit, the way she could do things he couldn’t, but he envied her bravery.

He’d never admit it, but he was jealous.

\--

There wasn’t a person or creature alive on Etheria that didn’t want to be Bow’s friend, it seemed. And who could blame them? Bow was perfect. Handsome and charming and kind hearted and sweet. It made sense that, no matter where they went, Bow was having his hand shook, his shoulder fondly clasped, his back rowdily patted. It made sense that people wanted to talk and listen to him.

Auntie Casta liked him, too. Probably more than she liked Glimmer. Mom liked him. Liked how sensible he was. The General liked him. Liked that he listened to her orders more than Glimmer did.

She almost hated it. How much everyone else, all the time, always seemed to want to be his friend. Not hers, she was the add-on. “Bow’s friend.” She almost hated it, how well her family loved him when she struggled to connect.

But it was Bow. She could never hate him, never really.

But she could stand on the side, watching yet another person fondly ruffle his hair, and allow herself to feel seethingly, silently jealous.


	5. Touch




	6. Horde Glimmer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In one reality, Hordak’s right hand was desperate for the validation of her superiors. She would do anything to earn his respect, his trust, because in a twisted way, that must mean she’d earned his love, too. She batted him around, sure, insulted him, but there was always a part of her that needed, _needed_ his approval. 
> 
> In another reality, his corpse hit the floor.

In one reality, Hordak’s right hand was desperate for the validation of her superiors. She would do anything to earn his respect, his trust, because in a twisted way, that must mean she’d earned his love, too. She batted him around, sure, insulted him, but there was always a part of her that needed, _needed_ his approval. 

In another reality, his corpse hit the floor.

“Force Captain Grizzlor,” Glimmer said, nudging Hordak’s body with the toe of her boot as she climbed the metal steps, golden circles interspersed where the Fright Zone’s initial, floating architecture had once hovered, “inform the others that there’s a new top dog in charge.”

“R-Right away, uh…”

“Lord Glimmer,” she said, seating herself upon the metal seat, the wings of the Horde’s symbol at such a perfect height that they seemed to extend from her very shoulders. “And summon the witch.”

\--

“No, _we_ were the super pal duo,” Bow insisted, “Now that there’s more of us, it just makes sense to change it to the best friend squad.”

“What makes sense is to keep with the--Entrapta help me out here.”

“Preestablished nomenclature!” 

“Yeah! Preestablished nomenclature, and just change it up a bit. Come on, trio, quartet, this stuff’s easy. And, that way, we can keep a running number of our friends!” Princess Scorpia of the Shining Land’s Rebellion insisted.

“You guyyyys,” Adora whined, looking bored to tears, “They’re both good! We can just call ourselves both!”

Bow and Scorpia shared a look, frowning, then turned back to Adora. “See that just sounds a little overcomplicated,” Bow said.

“Yeah, I’d get confused,” Scorpia agreed. Adora “uuuuuugh”ed.

“I’m gonna go see if I can find a way into the Whispering Woods,” she groused, leaving the three of them to the naming business. Bow didn’t hold very high hopes for her success. He’d grown up in those woods, but once the Horde had crash landed in Bright Moon and Hordak’s witch had gotten ahold of the Moonstone, he and everyone else who’d been living there had found them near-impossible to navigate, without a Horde symbol on their chest.

And even then, stolen armor could only get them in so far.

Fortunately, it did mean that, with She-ra now helping them, the Horde could more or less be _kept_ inside the Whispering Woods.

“Uhhh, BowwwwWWWW?!?” Adora’s escalating whine came from the Woods’ border, and Bow had his bow out in a moment, arrow knocked. But when he got to her side, She-ra out and glowing, sword pointing down at the ground, he found only a strange looking rock. 

He dropped his arms with a flat look, settling his bow and arrow back into and on his quiver. “She-ra, it’s just a rock.”

“It was a TALKING rock!” Adora insisted, keeping her sword pointed at it. “Be careful, we don’t know what kind of evil magic the Horde is up to this time!”

“She-ra, when’s the last time you slept?” Bow asked skeptically, Scorpia side-stepping around the two to bend down and carefully pick up the rock between her large pincers. Adora glared at him, then startled when she saw Scorpia holding the rock.

“Scorpia put it down.”

“It’s not talking to me,” she said, passing it over to Entrapta and ignoring Adora entirely. Entrapta held it up by the hair while Adora made a frustrated noise, and examined it with a magnifying scope.

“Okay you guys, let’s put the pebble down,” Bow said, now suspecting that this had just been a ploy to get them to stop arguing over Super-pal-quartet vs Best Friend Squad (Squad was better, it allowed for a shifting variable of numbers and was altogether smoother and less clunky to say). He reached out to take the rock from Entrapta’s hair, but when his skin made contact the pebble surged to life, reddish-pink light sparking from its surface and an unmistakable voice coming from it.

“Adora. _Bow.”_ The disgust in Glimmer’s voice never failed to make Bow frown. He didn’t get why she hated him so badly. “Congratulations, rebel scum. Your long held goal has finally been achieved, but not by you. Hordak is dead.”

Bow blinked, stunned. Dead? That--no, he, he had never wanted to _kill_ anyone! How would he even--but Glimmer was continuing.

“But don’t think this is the end. The Horde will wipe you out, we’ll conquer Etheria. It’s just that _I’ll_ be the one on top when this is over. Consider this your official declaration of war.”

The stone stopped glowing, the pinkish hue not fading so much as shining one moment and gone entirely dark the next. Bow dropped the stone. She-ra deformed and Adora joined him, staring mutely down at the now-entirely-plain rock.

“...Well this is an exciting development!” Entrapta announced, “I’m gonna get back to work!”

“Yeah,” Bow said, rubbing at the back of his head. “I… guess we should too?”

\--

Hordak had been something of a technological genius. So was Entrapta. Hordak had been a mediocre-at-best leader. So had Scorpia. Not that Bow thought Scorpia wasn’t trying, she absolutely was giving 110%, all of her all, and he was pretty sure she didn’t actually sleep. Just, well, when Adora had entered their group and She-ra had taken over a lot of the “leading the Rebellion” business, things had improved vastly.

Unfortunately, with Glimmer in charge of the Horde now, the vast-improvements affected them too. Adora had turned the tide for them, but Glimmer turned it right back. Land they’d painstakingly liberated from the Horde’s grasp fell through their fingers like sifting sand, and Glimmer was voracious.

But she was also strong-headed, quick-tempered, and reckless.

Which was how they ended up catching her.

\--

Glimmer prowled her “cell,” which was really more like a spare room than anything. The Shining Lands weren’t like the Fright Zone, where metal climbed upon old trees and architecture settled firmly against the pastel golds and purples of what had once been. There was very little solid in terms of buildings in the desert, just Honor Hall and the main palace as well as a couple of boulders big enough to chisel buildings into. Most of it was tents, and since they’d started their pathetic Rebellion even more tents had been added to the native number. So Glimmer was in the palace, which, yeah, made sense, she was a high-profile prisoner, but her “prison” had a couch.

She growled and threw another cushion.

She wished, not for the first time, that she’d inherited her mother’s connection to the Runestone, or at the very least her wings.

Voices. Glimmer silenced herself immediately, pressing her ear to the crack where the door met the wall.

“...talking about?!”

“I’m just saying, it feels wrong.” His voice. _Him._ Talking to that unnecessarily hot scorpion princess. “Maybe we should… let her go?”

“You know, I don’t think Adora’s gonna like that.”

Glimmer bit down a snarl. Yeah, Adora wouldn’t like that. Sure, Glimmer had to just sit back and watch _her_ leave, but would demand Glimmer stay wherever she wanted. She always had! She was such a--this wasn’t rational. Glimmer forced herself to take a deep breath. Adora was the enemy now. This wasn’t about a slightly-older-sister demanding that her slightly-younger-sister stay behind while she did cool stuff without her. This was about keeping a high profile prisoner locked down. Which Glimmer _was._

Honestly, it was kind of hilarious that Bow could have the Number One of the Horde in his grasp and even entertain the idea of letting her go. Like. Really? This boy was so SOFT, how had she still not broken him?!

Glimmer moved away from the door, and stood directly in front of it with her shoulders squared, waiting for it to open.

Scorpia’s silhouette was always the first thing Glimmer noticed. Hard not to, when the woman was like, what, seven feet tall? She blocked out the doorway with her massive bulk, desert sunlight streaming in through the third story windows that lined the hallway. In front of her, far less impressive in figure but fully capable of grasping all of Glimmer’s attention, was _him._

“Bow,” she greeted cooly, displaying none of her earlier agitation. Ideally. She was certainly trying not to, she wanted him to know that she was a _threat._

“Lord Glimmer,” Bow greeted in return, face pinched. He had a meal in his hands, and set it on the table. “May I speak with you?”

“I won’t try to kill you while we talk, if that’s what you mean,” Glimmer said, seeing right through him. His lips pursed briefly, but then he nodded at the door. Scorpia cast a worried look between the two, then shut the door and left. They listened to the sound of her retreating footsteps for a moment, Bow’s eyes on the door, hers never leaving him.

“What,” she said, light and high and lilting and malicious, “She-ra couldn’t come to babysit you? Had to ask your little rebel princess?”

Bow just looked at her, and she managed to hold her position for only three seconds before she got awkward and snarled at him. “What! What do you want to talk about, rebel scum?”

“Why is conquering Etheria so important to you?”

Glimmer blinked, then scowled even deeper. “Why does it matter?”

“Because I’ve seen you on the battlefield,” Bow said, taking a small, but far from hesitant half-step closer. “Because you do a lot, and I do mean a _lot_ of smashing, but not a lot of hurting people. I mean, seriously, you don’t even hurt most of the other rebels!” Bow gestured broadly, and Glimmer felt an uncomfortable twisting in her stomach.

She hadn’t thought anyone would notice. No one in the Horde did.

“Mostly it’s just Adora and me.”

“So you think I’m a good person now?” Glimmer asked, baring her teeth. “You think that just because I haven’t broken any bones doesn’t mean I won’t crush you and your pathetic rebellion!? I am going to _personally_ drag _you,”_ Glimmer closed the space between them and jabbed a finger to his stupid little heart chestplate, “down to the depths of _hell_ with me and I. Will. Laugh.”

Bow’s stupid, pretty face crumpled, looking genuinely torn. “Why do you hate me so much?”

And Glimmer couldn’t articulate it, the strange, unnamed, unfamiliar, honestly terrifying feeling Bow placed in her, so she settled for anger instead. “You stole my sister!”

“I didn’t _steal_ anyone! Adora realized that the Horde was wrong and _chose_ to join us!”

“She chose you over me!” Glimmer shouted, knowing she sounded stupid but she couldn’t stop herself.

“She joined our cause and we became friends! She still misses you; you can come too!”

“Oh so just because _Adora_ trails after some pretty, muscley, hot, _stupid_ boy, I have to too?!”

Bow and Glimmer stared at each other a beat, both of them sporting matching, mortified blushes.

“It’s not like that!” Bow burst. “She’s a lesbian!”

“I know that!”

“So why would you--!”

“Shut up! Shut up! I’ll kill you myself!” Glimmer bellowed, trying to remember a spell, any spell, literally even one spell that the witch had taught her before her capture and coming up blank. She needed him to go away. She needed him gone. She needed him to be somewhere that wasn’t here or she was going to say something she couldn’t take back, and no matter what it was, it wouldn’t be good. 

“Just think about it!” Bow shouted, voice cracking, backing away. “Just,” he repeated, quieter, a little more forced calm to his voice, “Just, just consider it. Please.”

Glimmer stared at him, skin alive and twitching and buzzing, a jittery fog to her brain that threatened to spark at any moment. She was breathing too hard for someone who hadn’t been doing anything physical. 

“Okay,” she said, quiet in the space between them, not knowing exactly what she’d agreed to consider.

\--

Of course she escaped. Early, before Adora had even gotten a chance to talk to her, in broad daylight, stealing a sand sledder on her way out. 

Bow wasn’t surprised, really. Some part of him had always, even just subconsciously, remained aware that she was a force of reckoning, too wild and brilliant and beautiful to ever remain contained.

But the Horde Forces, albeit slowly, began to leave the territories they’d conquered. The Rebellion continued to try and force them out early, particularly since the “peacefully” retreating Hordesmen took a fairly absurd amount of resources with them when they left, but even She-ra didn’t seem overtly needed in many of those fights. They were… winning?

“What did you say to her?” Scorpia asked Bow one day, when he was perched up on top of Honor Hall, pretending to fuss with the radio tower he and Entrapta had built. Scorpia might not know a darned thing about the radio, but she was emotionally intelligent, and Bow wasn’t exactly a closed book. He sighed.

“I asked her why she wanted to conquer Etheria,” he answered honestly, staring out over the desert. West. Towards the woods he couldn’t see. Below them, the Rebellion stretched out, smoke wafting from Entrapta’s smithy, light spilling out from the flap of Adora’s tent where she was inevitably on the datapad with that Crimson Waste cat lady again, Swift Wind nosing curiously at a patch of desert scrub. “I guess she couldn’t come up with a good answer.”

Scorpia sat on the edge of Honor Hall, legs dangling over the two story drop, and stared up at Bow. She knew him. He sighed, and sat down next to her, letting her sling her big, strong arm around his shoulders in the way that always made him feel safe and protected. “And?” she prompted, knowing that wasn’t the whole of it.

“We had… a weird argument,” Bow said.

“Ohhh, is this about your crush on her?”

“What!” Bow squeaked, voice cracking, “I don’t--she’s not--”

Scorpia continued to stare. Bow continued to sweat, mouth hanging open, scrambling for words. Then he groaned, flinging his hands up to cover his face, and buried himself into her side like he could hide from his own words.

“Okay fine! I like her!”

“Yeah, so, even Entrapta figured that out, like, the first time she saw you two interacting,” Scorpia said, patting his thigh sympathetically with her other claw. 

“Wait, does that mean she likes me too?” Bow asked, pulled momentarily out of his humiliation.

“Oh, gee,” Scorpia hissed air though her teeth, tapping her claw tip to her chin, “How do I put this nicely.”

Bow’s heart sank. So he really was just the pining fool.

“Yes. Obviously. Like, really really obviously,” Scorpia said, and just like that, Bow had the rug pulled out from under him. 

“Your Highness!” a guard called from below, interrupting whatever Bow was trying to reply with. “Another one of the strange rocks at the border, this one with a bow and arrow painted on it!”

Bow and Scorpia shared a look, but then quickly moved to converge on the guard, Bow naturally arriving there first since speed was not Scorpia’s strongest suit. The moment his skin touched the stone, it flickered to life with a pinkish-purple magic. It was different from the reddish-pink of the first stone. For some reason, he felt infinitely more at ease, with this one.

“Bow, specifically,” Lord Glimmer stated without preamble. “Meet me at the border of the Whispering Woods. You may bring Adora, but no one else. If I see any other, I will return to the Fright Zone without seeing you.”

The stone flickered out, and Bow heard Scorpia’s muttered “aw man” as though through a glass. She was willing to negotiate? Bow _specifically?_ Now? He let the stone drop, and took off at a sprint, beelining for Adora’s tent. Scorpia exclaimed behind him, but for all that she was his best friend, he wasn’t in the mood to care right then. He grabbed Adora, interrupting whatever joke the cat lady was telling, and within half an hour they’d crossed the desert and stared up at the line of trees. 

“Are you sure--” Adora started to ask, but then there was Lord Glimmer, emerging from the treeline. Maybe it was just because Bow was keyed up on possibility, but for a moment it was almost like he could even see the foliage shift, moving to allow her to pass.

“So you came,” Lord Glimmer said, and Bow took a step forward before stopping himself. 

“So you quit,” Bow said, far less certainly.

“You were right,” Glimmer said, shrugging her shoulders before uncrossing her arms. “It wasn’t what I wanted.”

“And… what do you want?” Bow asked, tentative, but hopeful, stupidly, perpetually, unfailingly hopeful.

“Am I intruding on something?” Adora asked quietly, almost muttering as though to herself.

“To be queen, not lord. Hordak took the Fright Zone from my mother, it’s time I took it back and rebuilt it. But to do that right, I’m going to need to know our history.” Something electric passed between their eyes. “And I can’t learn that alone.”

“So, I’m just, I’m just gonna,” Adora said with hunched shoulders and double pistols pointing sideways, in the direction she shuffled.

“There’s a library in the woods,” Bow said, though he was sure she already knew. “I could access it, if you need it.”

“I think I will. There’s a lot of work to do, if I’m going to restore the Fright Zone to its former glory.”

“Bright Moon,” Bow said, “It was originally called Bright Moon.” He realized he’d been approaching her, step after subconscious step.

He realized she’d been approaching him too, her dazzling eyes now close, so close.

“And if it’s going to be Bright Moon again,” Glimmer said, wetting her lips only briefly. “Will you be there?”

“If you’ll have me,” Bow said, voice dropped down to a breath. “If I may.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then they kissed.
> 
> Whew! Late out the gate on this one, but I wanted it to be perfect! I had a lot, like a LOT of fun with this one! 
> 
> Comments always appreciated!!!


	7. Marriage

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/Concrit always appreciated!


End file.
